Town are a ‘work in progress’

SIMON Clark says his squad are very much a work in progress at this stage in pre-season.

Speaking to the Guardian after Monday’s friendly win over Worksop Parramore the Tigers boss said their fitness work had shown on the pitch, but a lack of functional training was also evident.

He said: “(We’re a) work in progress. There’s reasons for performances.”

“We’ve done a lot of base work, and that showed, but we’ve done minimal football.”

“We’ve done no pattern and it shows with us.”

“We’re not fluid at all, players have an extra touch and haven’t got relationships which comes with time and work on the training ground.”

He was full of praise for the NCEL Premier opposition, who gave the Worksop Town back four a tough time in the first half.

“We looked a poor back four tonight because Parramore were very bright up top for 25 minutes and we struggled against movement. But we’ve done no work with regards to that.”

“Parramore started brilliantly, that’s the first diamond at this level that we’ve come up against.”

“We looked ropey as a back four but they’ve done different training to us – in the end our base work came through, so far it’s been all about working them at high intense levels, we’ve done 13,200m and that’s been enough.”

The Worksop side has featured a number of triallists in the opening pre-season fixtures, including powerful front man Lheureux Menga, and Clark is hoping they’ll give him options.

“I’m giving them a chance,” he said.

“They’re players that we know and we speak to people about them.”

“Menga is a battering ram. If you go on a sliding scale from physical to goalscorer we’ve got Menga, Bruno Holden, Massiah McDonald and Leon Mettam. We have balance.”

“I want a mix up top this year.”

Looking past pre-season to the new campaign, Clark insists he’s delighted with the tough run-in handed to his side by the Evo-Stik Premier.

He added: “It’s absolutely brilliant. You look at the last six, and we have AFC Fylde here – that’s what we want, we want to be right in it.”